Marsha sent me this link to the NY Times article on March 20: The Professor as Open Book, re an mtvU show wherein profs get to get back at their profiles on Rate My Professors.

Gosh. I used to be hoTTer, but age, worldly cynicism, and raging hormones have taken its toll, I guess. I mean, really, 7 years ago someone could write: She's not too hard on the eyes - academically speaking , and now? The number of hot chili peppers has perhaps declined, from fiery habanero to toned-down Norte-Americano plain ole jalapeno. Such a shame, as the great thing about aging (perchance this is a girlie-professor thing) is that in the classroom, sometimes things just come out of my mouth that are, well, unanticipated, off-topic perhaps, potentially ribald, and at least amusing to me. Ah, but this often reflects the dynamism and synergy of the students within the class, so kudos to them for igniting those sultry sparks.

Ross Marowits, THE CANADIAN PRESS
March 07, 2008
MONTREAL - The $52-billion takeover of BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE) could reach an important milestone Friday when a Quebec judge discloses his ruling on lawsuits challenging Canada's largest business transaction.

For Sale to the Highest Bidder: Telecom Policy in Canada, edited by Marita Moll and Leslie Regan Shade. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. March 2008.

Order Form, Table of Content and Intro available at CCPA.

For Sale to the Highest Bidder: Telecom Policy in Canada, is a timely collection of articles that offer a critical perspective on the current state and future of telecommunications policy in Canada.

Anticipating CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein’s recent skepticism about the proposed takeover of BCE Inc. by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and three U.S. private equity firms, economist Mel Watkins says “In effect, if control de jure is with the majority Canadian owners, but control de facto is with the minority foreign owners, this deal has finessed Canada’s foreign control rules for telecommunications companies.”

Julie White, a researcher with the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) echoes this concern: “In the face of international trade in cultural industries, we need to keep our Canadian culture protected and that includes Canadian self-determination of our telecom industry.”

HBO’s The Wire website has a feature The Wire: The Last Word, with actors, screenwriters, creator David Simon, along with some media critics and pundits, talking about the narrative arc about the Baltimore Sun in Season Five, regarding newsroom layoffs, buy-outs, and reportorial fabrication by slimy yuppie reporter Scott Templeton….

And from the Newspaper Guild-CWA, No Relief for Newspapers: Although payroll cuts traditionally reach a crescendo in late fall and early winter, as publishers try to put their houses in order for a new fiscal year, layoffs and buyouts are becoming a year-round phenomenon. In recent weeks, the New York Times has said it will eliminate 100 newsroom jobs; Tribune Co. said it will cut 400 to 500 jobs nationwide, including 45 or so at the Guild-represented Baltimore Sun; and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis said it will lay-off 58 and impose an indefinite wage freeze on its non-unionized employees. The Washington Post, meanwhile, will be offering another round of buy-outs next month.

And the Newspaper Guild-CWA’s Save Journalism site…

Simon in the March 2008 Esquire on some nostalgia for the Baltimore Sun newsroom he used to love….

Oh, and Margaret Talbot in The New Yorker with a profile of Simon.

Last night Concordia’s student newspaper The Link hosted a lively discussion with myself, Journalism Prof Linda Kay and McGill Communication Studies Prof Carrie Rentschler, moderated by Misha Warbanski, on various issues related to women and the media. One issue that came up was the importance of how we as educators impart feminist perspectives in the classroom, whether through pedagogical style and content; mentioned was the increasing presence of young women in communication and journalism programs. This is a phenomenon we see across the country, but whether this prevalence of women is reflected in the overall academic trajectory in terms of graduate enrollment (MA and PhD), postdocs, and layers and levels of academic hierarchy – tenuous-track, tenure-track, tenured, Asst-Assoc-Full-Chairs, etc., has not been enumerated yet. This is a project I’ve wanted to work on for awhile, but it would seem that the usual other stuff just gets in the way…Meanwhile, here is the 2007 Ivory Towers: Feminist Audits, an annual postcard of statistical data on women and other equity groups collected from CAUT and Statistics Canada.

Shade
Feb/6/1985
Assignment for Professor Jorge Schement, UCLA MLIS Program
(his comments: Good style. It kept me reading till the last word. But what is to be concluded? (pardon the paraphrase). A-)

Abba-abba stract: In this paper, the author presents a rather irresolute and certainly vacillating answer to the aforementioned question, presented in trite but humble diaristic stylistics. The upshot of the verbiage unquestionably remains annoyingly inconclusive, and it can only be construed that this is the recitative intent.